Meet the Press

Supporting a candidate for office can backfire embarrassingly--as the Miami News (circ. 137,598) once discovered when, in the midst of a crusade against gamblers, it recommended a city council candidate who turned out to be a convicted bookie. Last year, when crew-cut Columnist William C. Baggs, 37, became editor of James M. Cox Jr.'s News, he reserved the right to name the candidates the paper would support. Baggs set up a six-man editorial board to grill candidates in off-the-record sessions. As Florida's Democratic primary campaign drew to a close this week, the result of Baggs's inquisition was an editorial policy far more savvy, far less likely to be fatuous than the old hit-or-miss ways.

Sitting around Baggs's paper-cluttered desk, candidates often proved hilariously frank in self-appraisals. One man, recalls Baggs, admitted that he was up for election because "his wife told him to run for something so he'd get publicity, meet a few people and maybe improve his law business." Another confessed to soft-pedaling a major issue he used in a previous campaign. "I still feel the same way about that," he said, "but I got clobbered on that issue the last time."

Major deponents in this year's election race for Senator were ex-Senator Claude Pepper and Incumbent Spessard Holland (TIME, Sept. 8). What went on at the grillings was, as usual, the secret of those who took part, but apparently they were uncommonly revealing. Making its choice last week, the News headlined its editorial "A Limited Choice."

"Pepper," wrote Baggs, "has watered his philosophy . . . and we would not know what we were recommending to our readers if we recommended him." But Spessard Holland, who snipes at Pepper as an unregenerate pro-Red, "has been guilty of pine and palmetto McCarthy-ism." The News's summation: a gingerly approval of Holland--only because his seniority might help Florida's agriculture and timber industries.

Both candidates howled for Baggs's scalp and vainly tried to track down vacationing Publisher Daniel J. Mahoney. Editor Baggs happily summoned his board to assess candidates in other races.

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